I saw a fantastic movie, "Man on Wire," Tuesday evening with Rachel and Alex, one of our British friends. Well-done documentary about Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who walked on a tight-rope (really a steel cable but I don't know what else to call it) stretched between the two towers of the World Trade Center in the 1970s.

Kraków has the best street food in all of Europe.

And I state that emphatically and without qualifications even though I can only compare it with Berlin, Vienna, and Venice. We've got zapiekanki which are basically an open-face 12-inch sub roll covered in grilled mushrooms, melted cheese and ketchup. On the deluxe version you can get any combination of chives, garlic sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickles, corn and variety of meats. Then there are kebabs: a delicious medley of veggies (red cabbage, white cabbage, beats, carrots, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions), meat, cheese and your choice of the-spicy-sauce-that-WILL-knock-your-socks-off or the-garlic-sauce-that-you-WILL-still-taste-next-morning-no-matter-how-much-gum-you-chew. And obwarzanki, which are apparently a Kraków specialty...they have similar versions in other Polish cities but K is the only place that gets the twist just right. Imagine a bagel with a larger hole in the middle, less dense bread that's twisted nicely, and covered in any one of a variety of toppings: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, roasted cheesy bits, plain, or (my favorite) pikantny! I can't quite figure out what's on the pikantny one, but there are lots of grainy things and it's quite deliciously spicy. Ooh, and now that it's warmer a lot of the street food stands are selling hot, steamy corn-on-the-cob. OH, I almost forgot gofry! Gofry are waffles (in the good places you have to wait a few minutes because they cook the waffles RIGHT THEN) covered with all sorts of yummy tidbits: chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, different types of jams, whole fruits, nutella... Nothing better than being handed a waffle on a paper plate dripping with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Although there was that one time that I tipped my waffle slightly and all my whipped cream just slid off it since it was so warm and melty, and splatted on the ground. I thought that was only supposed to happen when you were 6 years old.

I read a newspaper today, which is a pretty incredible phenomenon for a couple of reasons. I normally get all of my news from the good old internet from daily emails by the Washington Post and New York Times, and it's a little expensive to obtain English newspapers in Kraków. I sat for a few hours today in Massolit, the English-language bookstore, and read a copy of April 16's International Herald Tribune as a break from my work. I read an interesting article about how the Himalayan glaciers are epxected to lose 75% of their ice by 2020, in the short-term causing severe flooding in mountain communities and in the longer-term causing severe water shortages since many of the major rivers in Asia have their source in those glaciers. This leads to, guess what, "desperate battles over water." Take Pakistan, for instance, whose major rivers all originate in India... It would have been a depressing article to read except for the large number of climate change initiatives listed at the end and a dead-on analysis of what needs to happen in the near future.

I had a wonderful time in Innsbruck and Venice last week, and will put up some pictures and write a little bit about it later this weekend...it's too late now and sleep is calling.

Itinerary and Easter Market!

This afternoon I leave on my week+ vacation!
First stop, Vienna to meet up with Chris.
Sat. 4/4: train to Innsbruck
4/4-4/8: explore Innsbruck and surrounds (1 day in city, 2 days hiking?)
4/8: back to Vienna to catch an overnight train to Venice
4/9-4/13: Venice!
4/13: train to Vienna and back to Krakow that night or early morning on the 14th

YES! I'm excited to see all of these new places.

It's going to be hard to get away from Krakow from here on out though, since it's so beautiful in springtime. Yesterday the weather was 60 F in the sunshine, maybe 50 in the shade. Rachel and I walked from Dom Piast to the old city (about a 40 minute walk) to enjoy the sunshine. I treated myself to a two-scoop cone of ice cream at the mall - chocolate and vanilla, I went basic but both flavors are SO rich at this ice cream cafe. Rachel and I hung out with some of our British friends for a little while at an outdoor cafe a few blocks from the main square and then took a short walk through the Easter market set up in the main square before heading home.

We've been watching the process of setting up the market for the past week or so. Every day there was something new - first the stalls, then wicker animals on top of some of them, then colored wicker eggs, then a HUGE barrel for mulled wine, then the larger grill stalls started appearing and a beautiful little garden in the middle of the square! Yesterday was the first day it opened and of course now I'm going away...but we've heard that the Christmas market was in place in the main square for a month so I'm assuming that the Easter market will definitely be around when I get back, only one day after Easter.



Decoration on one end of the market.















I love this wagon with daffodils coming out of the hay. Pretty and a little goofy with all those little daffodil-heads waving in the breeze.










Awesome wall graffiti that Rachel and I saw on our walk in.